


Where the love light gleams

by manesalex



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 12 Days of Malex 2019, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Ice Skating, M/M, Malex Secret Santa 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21642736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manesalex/pseuds/manesalex
Summary: No matter what is going on between them or where Alex is, he always gives Michael a reason to smile around Christmas. Or Michael and Alex spend three Christmases together.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 26
Kudos: 106
Collections: 12 Days Of Malex 2019





	Where the love light gleams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moderngenius94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moderngenius94/gifts).



> Nix, you asked for ugly Christmas sweaters, ice skating, and cuddling. I hope this fic brings you joy!
> 
> Thank you, as always, to my wonderful friend and beta, InsidiousIntent.

1\. Christmas - 2008

Alex is leaning against Michael’s truck when he reaches it. He wonders how long Alex has been waiting there in the cold winter air, his ears and cheeks red from the cold. His hair is short and neat, the septum piercing gone, no rings on his fingers, no nail polish, no eyeliner. Almost like a ghost of the Alex Michael had known.

“Why are you here, Alex?” he can’t help himself from asking. And he hates himself a bit for it because he never wants to complain about Alex being right here, in front of him. Not when it’s a relief that Alex is safe and home, for however long he’ll be here before he leaves again.

“Brought you a Christmas present,” Alex shrugs. It’s only then that Michael notices the box, neatly wrapped in simple red and green wrapping paper. It figures that Alex would be infuriatingly good at wrapping presents.

And he wants to be mad, but he can’t be. The only people in his life who’ve ever bothered with getting him Christmas gifts were Isobel and Max.

“How long are you here?” he asks, not reaching for the box.

“I have to head back to the airport in the morning,” Alex replies with a shrug. He doesn’t answer the many questions Michael wants to ask.

Instead of asking for things he has no right to, Michael just nods and reaches for the box, “Thank you,” he replies. “No one but Isobel and Max has ever…”

Alex doesn’t respond to that and it’s one of the many reasons Michael has been in love with him for a lot longer than he thinks he’s realized. Alex never responds with pity. He never pushes. He just understands Michael like no one ever has before. “Don’t thank me yet,” he finally says, raising an eyebrow and nodding toward the box.

“Come back to mine? I’ll open it there,” Michael offers, desperate for just a little longer with Alex Manes.

He gets a nod in response, so he climbs into his truck, waiting while Alex climbs into his rental car. And he drives home to Sanders’ Auto and the Airstream Sanders was letting him pay for in work, checking behind him to make sure Alex is following the entire way.

* * *

Michael waits to open his present until Alex is seated next to him on his bed. He starts with the tape in one corner, carefully picking it loose and slowly peeling the tape free. If he’s careful, he’ll have enough wrapping paper for both Max and Isobel’s presents and that’s one less thing to worry about spending money on.

Alex doesn’t say anything about the careful way Michael sets it aside, simply nods again at the box, both eyebrows raised and an almost evil grin on his face.

So Michael opens it and he can’t stop the laugh that leaves him when he sees the ridiculous sweater waiting inside. It’s bright red with black stripes that make up a design that looks like bricks. And, in the center is a huge fake pine wreath with actual decorations hanging from it. Protruding from the middle of that is a huge stuffed animal reindeer head. It’s absolutely hideous and hilarious and he can’t help but fall over in giggles at the sight of it.

He only turns to the beautiful boy next to him when he’s laughed himself out. “Thank you,” he says finally, cupping his face with his good hand and tracing one perfect cheekbone. He doesn’t mean for the sweater, though the laugh had been exactly what he’s needed these past six months.

“You’re welcome,” the seriousness of Alex’s tone tells him that Alex knows exactly what he means.

He leans forward and finally kisses Alex again, finally feels those soft lips beneath his own, those strong hands moving to his hair.

* * *

Michael wakes to find himself disappointingly alone. But there’s another box sitting on the counter. He stands and stretches, pleasantly sore, before reaching for the new gift and carefully opening it. It’s bigger than the other box, more square. He finally lifts the lid to find a black cowboy hat. It’s new and gorgeous, clearly expensive. The kind of thing Isobel might have picked out for him. But more him than almost anything his sister ever would buy for him.

He smiles as he puts on the ridiculous sweater and tops it off by pulling the hat on over his curls.

He wears that ugly sweater almost every day until one day in February, when Isobel sneaks into his trailer and destroys it, declaring it a crime against humanity.

It’s the angriest he’s ever been with her, but she doesn’t get it and he knows she’s still so fragile that he won’t express it. Instead, he keeps a closer eye on the cowboy hat, glad he has that reminder of Alex Manes with him.

* * *

2\. Christmas - 2013

Michael has gotten a Christmas present from Alex every year since he left. No forwarding address, no info about how he’s doing. Occasionally, Alex will come visit other times of the year, but that regular gift is the closest he gets to reassurance that Alex is alive most of the time.

He always recognizes them by the neatly wrapped package inside the bigger box. And the ugly Christmas sweaters, always paired with something nicer, something Michael would have gotten for himself if he could afford it.

He doesn’t quite know why Alex sends him these gifts, but he won’t complain.

But this year, he doesn’t find a gift at the usual time. Instead, there’s a letter, which he opens with shaking hands, terrified of what he’ll find.

But it’s just a single sheet of paper with Alex’s neat scrawl. An address in Albuquerque and a date and time. Christmas Eve. 9 pm. He won’t know until years later how certain Alex is that he’d never show. 

* * *

He finds himself at a skating rink. The place seems to be closed, only one other car parked outside. Or maybe everyone has better things to do on Christmas Eve. Actually, when he thinks of it, that’s probably the case.

But he trusts that Alex wouldn’t ask him to come here without a reason, so he steps inside, finding a box in that familiar wrapping paper on a table right inside the door, a pair of hockey skates in just his size right next to the gift.

He opens it slowly, laughing in delight at the hideous sweater, It’s a black sweater with hideous holiday designs on it and the words _Jingle My Bells_ in the center, a red bow right beneath them. At the center bottom of the sweater is a smaller green bow with green bells hanging from it.

He pulls off his jacket and flannel, setting both on the table and putting on the sweater.

Then he pulls on the skates, suddenly hit by nerves. He’s never learned to skate. It’s not like the foster families he stayed with would take him. Certainly not enough to learn.

But he trusts Alex, so he walks unsteadily on them toward the rink, just stopping to watch the single form weaving around on the ice.

Alex stops when he sees Michael, speeding over to him and stopping quickly and neatly at the edge of the rink, reaching out.

Michael takes his offered hands without question. Alex looks radiant, a bright smile on his face, skin flushed from the cold.

And then Alex’s cool lips are on his own for just a second, a greeting that sends all other thoughts flying from his head.

That is, of course, until Alex is pulling him toward the ice.

“I don’t know how to skate,” he admits softly, eyes dropping toward the unforgiving, slippery surface Alex is standing on.

“I’ll teach you,” Alex replies with a shrug.

And he’s as good as his word, skating backwards, holding both of Michael’s hands in his own as Michael slowly moves over ice.

Alex is patient no matter how slow Michael is, no matter how many times he falls. And none of those falls seem to hurt with Alex there to help him back up and his warm smile a constant presence.

They skate for hours. Michael never wants it to end. But he doesn’t complain when Alex stops. Not with the whispered, “Come back to my hotel with me?”

They spend the next few days, until Alex has to leave, in bed.

On December 28th, Michael wakes in the bed alone with a box next to him on the bed, neatly wrapped.

He opens it to find a new, silver belt buckle.

When he returns home, he’s more careful with the ridiculous Christmas sweater, as he has been with all of the ones since the first. He doesn’t wear them out all the time anymore. But he does wear that belt buckle everywhere.

* * *

3\. Christmas - 2020

Michael is relieved to finally be done with work for the week. It pays, well, _some_ of the bills. It’s enough that he can keep the Airstream and his truck going, even if he does have trouble getting enough food sometimes. But dealing with ice cold metal outside in the winter is hard, even with the help of his telekinesis.

The drive to Alex’s cabin is quiet and he’s greeted, the instant he opens the door, by an enthusiastic beagle. It’s taken long enough for her to warm up to him, to trust that he didn’t want to hurt Alex, no matter how much pain they caused each other in the past.

Alex is busy in the kitchen, finishing up dinner, dark-framed glasses on, hair a mess, but he turns his head for a kiss when Michael reaches him and then nods toward the dining room table.

Michael smiles when he sees the box with the green and red paper sitting there, waiting for him. Alex has yet to miss a year, even during that awful time when it felt like all they could do was hurt each other.

But now things are better. They’ve only been back together for a few months, but he’s happier than he ever thought he could be. He slowly peels off the paper, well aware that there is plenty more where it came from stored in a closet off of the living room. No need to waste it though.

He lifts the lid to the white box and pulls out the latest sweater, laughing with delight at the design on this one.

It’s black with red sleigh and UFO trim on it. And, in the center, is the stereotypical Little Grey Man that he loves to mock, holding a probe, with Santa bare ass up on the table.

He takes off his jacket and his flannel, careful to hang them up, before he pulls on the sweater and heads back to the kitchen to help Alex finish with dinner.

Alex blushes when he sees Michael in the sweater, but Michael can only smirk and ask, “Think we can enact this later?”

Alex may be blushing, but his tone is playful when he says, “Play your cards right, cowboy…”

Alex has already started the fire and he leads Michael toward the couch, so Michael simply follows, plates in hand, using his telekinesis to wrap the both of them up in plenty of blankets before he hands Alex his plate.

Buffy is polite enough to wait until dinner is done and Michael has floated their plates back to the kitchen before she’s on the couch too, trying to burrow her way beneath the blankets and onto Alex’s lap. He’s well aware that she only waited because of Alex. If it had just been him, Buffy would have been trying to steal off of his plate.

“You’re going to wear that sweater to Isobel’s tomorrow, aren’t you?” Alex asks as he snuggles in, letting Michael pull him as close as he can.

“You know me so well, darlin’. I can’t wait to see how red Max’s face gets.” He pauses, considering, knowing that it’s not as easy for Alex to be as open about everything. “That okay?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten it for you if it wasn’t,” Alex shrugs, turning around in his arms for a kiss before settling back to lean his back against Michael’s chest.

“You know Liz, Rosa, Kyle, and Maria are all going to be with family tomorrow, right? You don’t mind being the only human to celebrate Christmas with the aliens?” Michael asks. He knows Alex deserves better than his father and brothers, but he also knows that Mimi Deluca is like a mother to Alex and Arturo would be more than happy to add Alex to the Ortecho’s celebrations. He’s sure Kyle could convince his mother to invite Alex too, even if he is dating the town drunk. Or former town drunk.

“I’m going to be with family too,” Alex shrugs. “I meant it when I said that you’re mine, you know.” This is a well-worn topic by now, but Michael still struggles to believe that the person he wants most has chosen him. “If you want me there, that is.”

And that reminds him that Alex has his own issues too. He doubts they’ll ever move past them completely, but they’re working on it. Together. He considers a dozen different responses before going for a lighthearted one. “Like I’m going to let you miss out on the look on Max’s face when he sees this sweater. Or Isobel’s, for that matter.” He pauses, “You’re mine too, Alex.”

“You still have to open your other gift,” Alex nods at the mantle, where a small box sits, wrapped in that familiar paper.

Michael just floats it over to himself. He looks over Alex’s shoulder while he unwraps it, not wanting to relinquish his hold on his boyfriend.

“It’s not just for you. It’s for us. If you want it,” Alex sounds adorably nervous as Michael lifts the lid and finds a key sitting inside. “And I know it’s moving a bit fast, but I’ve been in love with you for twelve years and I’m more than ready to have you move in with me. That is, if you want. And it’s okay to say no, you-”

“You want me to move in with you?” Michael asks, finally catching up to what Alex is asking.

Alex turns his head so he can look at Michael, “I do. And not just because you practically live here anyway.”

“Okay,” Michael replies once he realizes Alex is still waiting for an answer.

“Okay?” Alex asks for confirmation.

Michael responds by moving in for another kiss, not caring if the angle is awkward.

He can feel Alex’s smile starting against his lips and he pulls away just enough so he can see his favorite sight in the universe.

“Welcome home, Michael,” Alex says, smiling the entire time.

**Author's Note:**

> Pictures of the ugly sweaters described in this fic are available at [my tumblr](https://manesalex.tumblr.com/post/189425992644/where-the-love-light-gleams) in my post for this fic. I will update this with a link when it posts there.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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